The Alpha

• This week, government whistleblower Edward Snowden is auctioning a newly created NFT during the first episode of PleasrHouse, the interactive live auction show from Web3 community collective PleasrDAO, according to a press release shared with nft now.

• Entitled “Wouldn’t You Go to Prison to Help End This War?”, Snowden collaborated with political activist Daniel Ellsberg for the unique 1-of-1 piece, which pays tribute to Ellsberg’s 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers.

• The auction will take place Thursday, January 12, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. ET, and feature interviews with Ellsberg and Snowden in addition to clips from a documentary produced by PleasrDAO. Funds from the auction will go toward both figures’ respective political causes.

Why it matters

Edward Snowden and the Web3 community have become fast friends over the years, with the decentralized, censorship-resistant nature of the blockchain appealing to the former and Snowden’s track record of mass-surveillance whistleblowing attracting the latter. In 2021, Snowden released and sold an NFT entitled “Stay Free” for 2,224 ETH ($5.5 million at the time). The buyer? PleasrDAO, the Web3 collective of DeFi enthusiasts established by fans of the NFT figurehead PplPleasr (Emily Yang).

The collaborative piece is based on Ellsberg’s iconic release of the Pentagon Papers and includes archival footage of the activist from a 1971 interview given from the steps of the Boston courthouse where Ellsberg surrendered himself to the...

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